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Leagues in Germany
3. Liga The 3. Liga ( ), is the third division of football in Germany. The league started with the beginning of the 2008–09 season, when it replaced the Regionalliga as the third tier football league in Germany. In the German football league system, it is positioned between the 2. Bundesliga and the semi-professional Regionalliga, which became the fourth division and initially consisted of three groups of 18 clubs playing separately. In Germany, the 3. Liga is the highest division that a football club's reserve team can play in. On 8 September 2006, the German Football Association, the DFB, announced the formation of the 3. Liga. It was originally anticipated that the league's name would be 3. Bundesliga, but the DFB chose 3. Liga instead, reflecting the fact that the league will be directly administered by the DFB, not by the DFL (Deutsche Fußball Liga, English:German Football League) who runs the two Bundesligen. The first match of the 3. Liga was played on 25 July 2008 between FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt and Dynamo Dresden at the Steigerwaldstadion in Erfurt. Dynamo Dresden won the match 1–0, with Halil Savran scoring the only goal in the closing stages of the first half. Regionalliga The Regionalliga ( ) is the fourth tier of football in the German football league system. Until 1974, it was the second tier of the league system before being disbanded. The Regionalliga was then re-introduced as the third tier of the system in 1994. Upon introduction of a new nationwide 3. Liga in 2008, it was demoted to the fourth level of the pyramid. Oberliga The Oberliga ( , "Upper League"; plural: Oberligen) is currently the name of the fifth tier of the German football league system. Before the introduction of the 3. Liga in 2008, it was the fourth tier. At the end of the 2011–12 season the number of Oberligas was increased from eleven to fourteen. With the exception of the Nazi-era Gauliga, the term Oberliga (equivalent to Premier League in English) was used prior to the formation of the Bundesliga in 1963 for first-division leagues in Germany. Between 1978–94 the term Amateuroberliga was used for third-tier leagues, which were then the highest level of amateur play in the country. The current usage of the designation Oberliga was introduced in 1994. In East Germany a separate league structure was in place from 1948–1990 and the top flight division there was known as the DDR-Oberliga. NOFV-Oberliga The NOFV-Oberliga is a division at step 5 of the German football league system. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, it became the successor of the DDR-Oberliga, and functions today as a 5th division in the former territory of East Germany and the city of Berlin. This league is named after the Nordostdeutscher Fußballverband (NOFV - North-East German Football Association), the regional association of the DFB in the former East German territories. The league is currently split in two groups, north and south, the NOFV-Oberliga Nord and NOFV-Oberliga Süd. A third league, the NOFV-Oberliga Mitte existed from 1991 to 1994. The NOFV-Oberliga developed after the entry of the Deutscher Fußball-Verband (the East German Football Association) to the Deutscher Fußball-Bund. It was the successor of the DDR-Oberliga and functioned as the elite division in the former East Germany for this season only. FC Hansa Rostock became champions of that league, with Dynamo Dresden being the runners-up. Thereby both acquired the starting rights for the 1991–92 Bundesliga season. The following teams qualified directly for the 2. Bundesliga: * FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt (3rd Place) * Hallesche FC Chemie (4th Place) * Chemnitzer FC (5th Place) * FC Carl Zeiss Jena (6th Place) These two teams qualified indirectly through a playoff round: * 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig (7th Place) * BSV Stahl Brandenburg (8th Place) All remaining clubs continued to play in the NOFV-Oberliga. This became the third-highest division starting with the 1991–92 season.